Information processing device, information processing method, program, and storage medium

ABSTRACT

An information processing device obtains a popularity degree index of a blog which contains at least one article, sets a threshold for determining whether or not to compress each blog in accordance with the popularity degree index for each blog, determines whether or not the blog is a blog to be compressed based on a total data amount of the at least one article contained in the blog and on the threshold, and determines an article to be compressed among the at least one article contained in the blog to be compressed. At least a part of the article contained in the blog to be compressed is to be compressed.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National Stage of International Application No.PCT/JP2016/081142 filed Oct. 20, 2016.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, aninformation processing method, a program, and a storage medium, and morespecifically, to technologies suitably applicable to a server devicethat manages a blog.

BACKGROUND ART

An example known service utilizing the Internet is a service thatprovides a blog environment. A user uploads an article that containsarbitrary sentences and images as a blog to a server, and the uploadedinformation is stored as a written article of the user. The stored blogis opened to the public in the form of, generally, a webpage. Moreover,the range to be opened to the public may be limited, or the blog is notopened to the public at all, and the like.

Many users utilize such a blog service as a tool for an own informationdispatch, or as an alternative for a private diary.

Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology relating to a blog, e.g., atechnology relating to an upload of an article.

Patent Literature 2 discloses a technology relating to a contentsdeletion in accordance with the insufficient remaining capacity of aserver.

CITATION LIST Patent Literatures

Patent Literature 1: JP 2007-328750 A

Patent Literature 2: JP 2010-44468 A

SUMMARY OF INVENTION Technical Problem

Many blogs can be launched at no charge, and there are users whotentatively launch a blog but hardly update. In contrast, there areusers who frequently update the articles and gain in popularity. Hence,there are various types of users. Accordingly, the number of accessesfor each blog and for individual article varies broadly.

A blog such that several articles are updated after the blog has beenlaunched, but not updated afterward and left as it is for a long timewithout any access, and the user who has launched the blog does notlogin may be unnecessary for the user. Such a blog wastes, inparticular, a storage resource of a service provider that provides theblog service.

Hence, a blog and articles that have a low accessibility may becompressed, and may be decompressed and distributed when an access ismade.

However, compressing and decompressing processes have a high processload. The necessity of a decompression of the article when an access ismade may decrease a performance possibly at the time of viewing suchthat a viewing user feels a slow response of a webpage due to such aprocess time. In view of the foregoing, it is preferable to reduce thenumber of compressing and decompressing processes as much as possible atthe time of viewing.

Therefore, an objective of the present disclosure is to accomplish aneffective utilization of a storage resource while avoiding adecompressing process at the time of viewing as much as possible by anappropriate selectin of an article to be compressed.

Solution to Problem

An information processing device according to the present disclosureincludes: a popularity degree index obtaining unit that obtains apopularity degree index of a blog which contains one or a plurality ofarticles; a threshold setting unit that sets a threshold for determiningwhether or not to compress each blog in accordance with the popularitydegree index for each blog; and a determining unit which determineswhether or not the blog is a blog to be compressed based on a total dataamount of the articles contained in the blog and on the threshold, atleast a part of the article contained in the blog to be compressed beingto be compressed, and which determines an article to be compressed amongthe articles contained in the blog to be compressed.

When the resource for storing the blog becomes tight because of thearticles contained in the blog, the articles that belong to the blog maybe compressed. In this case, the threshold for determining whether ornot to compress is decided based on the popularity degree index for eachblog.

The above-described information processing device may further include acompressing and decompressing unit which compresses the article to becompressed among the articles that belong to the blog to be compressed,and which decompresses the article when an access request is made to thearticle that has been already compressed.

This compressing and decompressing unit compresses the appropriatearticle selected in accordance with the determination by the determiningunit. Moreover, even if the article is compressed as being determinedthat the accessibility is low, an access request thereto may sometimesoccur. In this case, execution of the decompressing processappropriately provides the article to the accessing user.

In the above-described information processing device, the determiningunit may determine, for each article, whether or not the article is tobe compressed in accordance with a degree of an accessibility for eacharticle contained in the blog to be compressed.

When any of the articles that belong to the blog is compressed, whicharticle is to be compressed may be selected. According to thisstructure, the determination is made in accordance with theaccessibility for each article.

In the above-described information processing device, the determiningunit may determine that, when the already-compressed article isdecompressed in accordance with an access request, the article is not tobe compressed for a predetermined time period from the decompression.

That is, the article that is decompressed when an access is made isbeing in a decompressed status for the predetermined time period.

In the above-described information processing device: the determiningunit may determine, for the already-compressed article, whether or notto decompress in accordance with a value that indicates an increasingtendency of a page view to the other article in the same blog to becompressed; and the compressing and decompressing unit may decompressthe article in accordance with the determination on whether or not todecompress.

When a given blog has the number of accesses keenly increased because ofa certain popular article, the other article contained in this blog hasthe increasing possibility such as to be accessed in future even if notaccessed so far. Hence, the determination to decompress is made.

In the above-described information processing device, the determiningunit may determine whether or not to decompress the already-compressedarticle based on contents of the article.

For example, as the contents of the compressed article, an article thatcontains a certain set keyword or a current-news word, an article for aspecific theme, etc., are picked out, and those articles are to bedecompressed.

In the above-described information processing device, the popularitydegree index may be a value obtained based on at least one of thefollowings: a total number of page views for the entire blog; a numberof page views for each article; a number of unique users who haveaccessed the blog; a total linked number set for the blog; a totalnumber of comments posted on the blog; a number of unique users who haveposted comments on the blog; a value that indicates a page ranking ofthe blog; a length of a time period at which there is no access requestto the blog; a total number of page views for the entire blog within apredetermined time period; a value that indicates an increasing tendencyof the page views for the entire blog; a value that indicates a blogupdating frequency (an article posting frequency); a number of clicks toan advertisement provided on the blog page; and a value that indicatesan increasing tendency of the data amount for the entire blog.

These values are likely to be values in accordance with the popularityfor each blog.

An information processing method according to the present disclosureincludes: a popularity degree index obtaining step of obtaining apopularity degree index of a blog which contains one or a plurality ofarticles;

a threshold setting step of setting a threshold for determining whetheror not to compress each blog in accordance with the popularity degreeindex for each blog; and a determining step of determining whether ornot the blog is a blog to be compressed based on a total data amount ofthe articles contained in the blog and on the threshold, at least a partof the article contained in the blog to be compressed being to becompressed, and of determining an article to be compressed among thearticles contained in the blog to be compressed.

This information processing method enables the information processingdevice to determine an appropriate article to be compressed.

A program according to the present disclosure is a program that causesan information processing device to execute procedures corresponding tothe above-described steps. A storage medium according to the presentdisclosure has stored therein the program. Those accomplishes theabove-described processes of the information processing device.

Advantageous Effects of Invention

According to the present disclosure, since an appropriate article to becompressed is selectable, effective utilization of a storage resource isaccomplished while avoiding a decompressing process at the time ofviewing as much as possible.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram for a network that includes a blogserver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a computer apparatus that can be utilizedin the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for a functional configuration of theblog server according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for a managing database according tothe embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a compression determining process according toa first embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a compressing process according to the firstembodiment;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a process when an access request is receivedaccording to the embodiment;

FIGS. 8A, 8B and 8C are flowcharts of an example process afterdecompression according to the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a popularity degree index calculating processaccording to a second embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of an accessibility index calculating processaccording to the second embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a compressing process according to a thirdembodiment;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a compression determining process according toa fourth embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a compression and decompression determiningprocess according to the fourth embodiment;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a compressing and decompressing processaccording to a fifth embodiment;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a decompression determining process accordingto a sixth embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a decompressing process according to the sixthembodiment;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a decompression determining process accordingto a seventh embodiment; and

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a compression determining process according toan eighth embodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments will be described below in the following sequence.

<1. System Configuration>

<2. Blog Server and Database>

<3. First Embodiment>

<4. Second Embodiment>

<5. Third Embodiment>

<6. Fourth Embodiment>

<7. Fifth Embodiment>

<8. Sixth Embodiment>

<9. Seventh Embodiment>

<10. Eighth Embodiment>

<11. Summary and Modified Example>

<12. Program and Storage Medium>

Note that, in the following description, a term “blog” means a webpagein the form of a diary called a weblog or simply a blog. Morespecifically, a blog server provides an environment (a storage capacityand a webpage) for forming a blog to a user, and the user uploads, inthe form of posting, etc., an article that contains sentences and imagesto the own blog. A blog server normally provides such an article for apublic (or limited range) viewing. However, the blog may be not openedto the public.

The contents of the article are not limited to any particularinformation. It may be information utilized for the user to informationdispatch, or may be a private diary, etc. Moreover, equivalent contentsalthough not called a “blog” are also treated as a blog.

The term “article” is an element which constitutes a blog, and indicatesa unit (e.g., a posted unit) formed by sentences and images. Thecontents thereof are not limited to any particular information.Moreover, the article may be not only a single topic but also a group ofarticles to be viewed by a single URL for one or a plurality of topics.

Regarding the term “user”, a user as a describer who writes an articlein the own blog (a so-called blogger), and a user as an audience whoviews the other person's or own blog are expected. Those users aredistinguished and referred to as the “describer” and the “audience”.Needless to say, it is normally expected that a user may be a describerat a given time point but may become an audience at another time point.

A term “compression” means a so-called data compression, and is toconvert various data, such as text data and image data, into anotherdata that has decreased data amount while maintaining the substantialcharacteristics of the data.

A term “decompression” is to return the compressed data to the statusbefore the compression. However, a case in which data does notcompletely return to the status before the compression like a case inwhich a so-called lossy compression is executed at the time of thecompression is also involved. In this specification, an action to makeat least the contents of the article viewable is called the“decompression”.

1. System Configuration

FIG. 1 illustrates an example structure of a network system thatincludes a blog server 1 according to an embodiment.

According to the network system of this embodiment, a blog server 1 anda plurality of user terminals 5 are connected together so as to bemutually communicable via a network 2.

Moreover, the blog server 1 is accessible to various databases. Notethat the term “database” will be referred to as “DB” below. In thefigure, a blog DB 51, an image DB 52, and a managing DB 53 areillustrated as the DBs to which the blog server 1 is accessible.

Regarding the structure of the network 2, various structures areexpectable. For example, the Internet, an intranet, an extra network, aLocal Area Network (LAN), a Community Antenna TeleVision (CATV)communication network, a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a telephonenetwork, a mobile communication network, a satellite communicationnetwork, etc., are expectable.

Moreover, regarding a transmission medium that constitutes all of or apart of the network 2, various examples are also expectable. Forexample, wired schemes, such as Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 1394, a Universal Serial Bus (USB), a power linetransmission or a telephone line, or, wireless schemes, such as infraredray like Infrared Data Association (IrDA), Bluetooth (registeredtrademark), 802.11 wireless communication, a mobile phone network, asatellite connection, or a terrestrial digital network, are applicable.

The blog server 1 is an information processing device utilized by anorganization that manages and runs the blog service for the users. Theblog server 1 provides a blog environment to the user (describer) anddistributes webpage data like a blog article page to the user (audience)in response to an access request.

More specifically, for the describer who wants to open a blog, a webpageas the describer's blog is set, and user information is registered, andthe like. For the describer who has already launched the blog, thearticle posted by the describer is stored.

Moreover, in response to the access request from the user who is ageneral audience, the webpage data corresponding to the related webpageis distributed.

This blog server 1 is equivalent to an embodiment of the informationprocessing device as recited in the claims.

The user terminal 5 is a terminal utilized by the user as the describeror the audience. An example user terminal 5 is a Personal Computer (PC)with a communication function, a feature phone, a Personal DigitalAssistant (PDA) or a smart device, such as a smartphone or a tabletterminal.

The user terminal 5 executes various kinds of transmitting and receivingprocesses, display processes, etc., as needed.

The audience is capable of arbitrarily viewing the interesting blog viaa web browser on the user terminal 5.

The describer is capable of accessing and viewing the own blog page, andposting a new article via the user terminal 5.

The user terminal 5 is to execute a communicating process, a displayprocess, etc., for these operations.

FIG. 2 illustrates a hardware configuration of the informationprocessing device that constructs the blog server 1 or the user terminal5 as illustrated in FIG. 1. Each device illustrated as the blog server 1or the user terminal 5 is achieved by a computer apparatus asillustrated in FIG. 2 and the computer apparatus is capable of aninformation processing and information communication.

In FIG. 2, a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 101 of the computer apparatusexecutes various kinds of processes in accordance with a program storedin a Read-Only Memory (ROM) 102 or a program loaded in a Random AccessMemory (RAM) 103 from the storing unit 108. The RAM 103 also stores, asneeded, necessary data, etc., for the CPU 101 to execute various kindsof processes.

The CPU 101, the ROM 102, and the RAM 103 are mutually connected witheach other via a bus 104. An input-output interface 105 is alsoconnected to this bus 104.

An input device 106, an output device 107, the storing unit 108, and acommunicating unit 109 are connected to the input-output interface 105.

The input device 106 includes, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, and atouch panel.

The output device 107 includes, for example, a display, such as a LiquidCrystal Display (LCD), a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT), an organicElectroLuminescence (EL) panel, and a speaker.

The storing unit 108 includes, for example, a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), ora flash memory device.

The communicating unit 109 executes a communicating process and adevice-to-device communication via the network 2.

A media drive 110 is also connected to the input-output interface 105,as needed. A removable medium 111, such as a magnetic disk, an opticaldisk, a magneto-optical disc, or a semiconductor memory, is loaded asneeded, and information is written or read relative to the removablemedium 111.

According to such a computer apparatus, data and programs are uploadedor downloaded via the communication by the communicating unit 109.Moreover, data and programs can be exchanged via the removable medium111.

The CPU 101 that executes processing operations in accordance with thevarious programs achieves execution of necessary information processingand communication as the blog server 1 or as the user terminal 5.

Note that the information processing device that constitutes the blogserver 1 or the user terminal 5 is not limited to a structureconstructed by a single computer apparatus as illustrated in FIG. 2, butmay employ a structure in which a plurality of computer apparatusesconstructs a system. The plurality of computer apparatuses may constructa system via a LAN, etc., or may be placed at remote sites via a VPN,etc., that utilizes the Internet. The plurality of informationprocessing devices may include a group of servers (cloud) that isavailable by cloud computing service.

2. Blog Server and Database

FIG. 3 illustrates a functional configuration of the blog server 1constructed by the one or plurality of information processing devices,and various kinds of DBs.

Each function as the blog server 1 is achieved by the process executedby the CPU 101 in the information processing device in accordance withthe program. However, all of or a part of a process by each structure tobe described below may be achieved by hardware.

Moreover, when each function is achieved by a software, it isunnecessary that each function is achieved by individual program. Asingle program may execute a plurality of functional processes, or asingle function may be achieved by a cooperative operation by aplurality of program modules.

Moreover, each function may be distributed to the plurality ofinformation processing devices. Furthermore, a single function may beachieved by the plurality of information processing devices.

As illustrated in the figure, the blog server 1 includes functions as ablog managing unit 11, a popularity degree index obtaining unit 12, athreshold setting unit 13, a determining unit 14, and a compressing anddecompressing unit 15.

The blog managing unit 11 executes necessary processes as a server thatprovides the blog service. For example, this unit provides the blogenvironment to the user, manages information on the user as thedescriber, stores and manages the created blog, manages information oneach blog, and distributes the webpage of the blog (article) inaccordance with the access request, and the like.

Moreover, the blog managing unit 11 updates and reads the information inthe managing DB 53 as needed.

When determining whether or not to compress the article in the blog, thepopularity degree index obtaining unit 12 executes a process ofobtaining the popularity degree index which indicates the popularitydegree of the blog as information utilized for the determination. In theprocess of obtaining the popularity degree index, a value itself thatindicates a popularity degree index may be obtained, or the popularitydegree index may be obtained through calculation based on a plurality ofindexes.

The popularity degree index for the blog is calculated based on one or aplurality of the following values: the total number of page views forthe entire blog; the number of page views for each article; the numberof unique users who have accessed the blog; the total linked number setfor the blog; the total number of comments posted on the blog; thenumber of unique users who have posted comments on the blog; the valuethat indicates the page ranking of the blog; the length of a time periodat which there is no access request to the blog; the total number ofpage views for the entire blog within a predetermined time period; thevalue that indicates the increasing tendency of page views for theentire blog; the value that indicates the blog updating frequency; thenumber of clicks to an advertisement provided on the blog page; and thevalue that indicates the increasing tendency of the data amount for theentire blog, etc.

For example, the popularity degree index may be calculated based on thetotal number of page views for the entire blog, or may be calculated inview of the total number of comments posted on the blog in addition tothe total number of page views for the entire blog.

The threshold setting unit 13 executes, for each blog, a process ofsetting a threshold for determining whether or not the blog should beset as a blog to be compressed in which at least some articles containedin the blog are compressed (the details will be described later).

Regarding the setting of the threshold, the popularity degree indexobtained by the popularity degree index obtaining unit 12 is utilized. Asetting is made for the blog in such a way that the higher thepopularity degree index is (i.e., the higher the popularity is), thehigher the threshold is to be set, thereby decreasing the necessity ofthe compressing process and also the decompressing process.

Note that in the following description, the above-described thresholdwill be referred to as the “to-be-compressed-blog determiningthreshold.”

The determining unit 14 executes a process of determining whether or notto compress the article contained in the blog based on theto-be-compressed-blog determining threshold. In other words, a processof determining whether or not the blog is the blog to be compressed. Thedetermining unit 14 also determines whether or not to compress for eacharticle contained in the blog when determining that the blog is to becompressed.

Moreover, the determining unit 14 executes, for the compressed article,a process of determining whether or not to decompress based on thepopularity degree index, a process of determining whether or not todecompress based on the contents, and a process of determining whetheror not to decompress based on the popularity tendency of the blog, andthe like.

A specific example will be described later as a process in eachembodiment.

The compressing and decompressing unit 15 executes a process ofcompressing the article determined as to be compressed by thedetermining unit 14.

Moreover, the compressing and decompressing unit 15 executesadecompressing process to the compression when the access request ismade to the already-compressed article.

Furthermore, the compressing and decompressing unit 15 executes aprocess of decompressing the already-compressed article determined as tobe decompressed by the determining unit 14.

Upon the execution of the compressing process on the article, the blogthat does not need a further compressing process on the article is nolonger the blog to be compressed.

FIG. 3 illustrates the blog DB 51, the image DB 52, and the managing DB53 that are DBs to which the blog server 1 accesses.

The blog DB 51 stores the blog data for each describer as webpage data.Regarding each blog, the article is added in accordance with thedescriber's posting.

The data on the webpage that forms the blog is structured documentfiles, such as HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and Extensible HyperTextMarkup Language (XHTML). Described in the structured document files aretext data for the article posted by the describer, specifyinginformation for image data on various images, the layout thereof, andthe display scheme thereof (e.g., a letter color, a font, a size, and adecoration).

Moreover, the audience can also post a comment to the blog. Data on sucha comment from such an audience is also stored in the blog DB 51 inassociation with the blog and each article therein.

When there is the access request to a certain blog from the userterminal 5, the blog server 1 reads the requested blog page from theblog DB 51, and distributes the read information to the user terminal 5.

The image DB 52 stores the image data (still image data or motion imagedata) attached to the blog.

Although an image can be attached to the article in the blog, forexample, article data and specifying information (link information) onthe image corresponding to the article data are stored in the blog DB51. Moreover, the image data itself is stored in the image DB 52.

In the case of the access request to the blog article to which the imageis attached, the webpage data is displayed by the browser on the userterminal 5, but at this time, the user terminal 5 requests the imagedata to the blog server 1 in accordance with the link setting on thewebpage. The blog server 1 reads image data from the image DB 52 inaccordance with the request, and distributes the image data to the userterminal 5. Hence, a blog article with the image is displayed on theuser terminal 5.

Note that this is merely an example, and the webpage data that containsthe image data in advance may be stored in the blog DB 51.

The managing DB 53 stores information for managing each blog.

An example of the details of managing DB 53 will be illustrated in FIG.4.

A blog Identification (ID) is set for each blog, and the accompanyinginformation is managed based on the blog ID. For example, userinformation, blog managing information, blog actual-achievementinformation, size information, determination information, compressionand decompression information, a compressed article tag, etc., areupdated and managed as needed for each blog (the blog ID).

The user information is information on the user (blog operator) as thedescriber who has launched the blog. For example, user informationincludes a user ID, a login password as the operator, attributeinformation, such as a user's address, a name and age, and informationon a login date and time as the operator.

The blog managing information is the attribute information on the blogitself. For example, such information contains the Uniform ResourceLocator (URL) of the blog, genre information on the blog, the bloglaunched date and time, the number of articles in the blog, update dateand time information, layout information on the blog, and link settinginformation.

Regarding the blog actual-achievement information, information thatindicates the popularity of the blog (the popularity degree index), andinformation that indicates an accessibility to each article are stored.

More specifically, regarding the entire blog, the total number of pageviews, the number of accessed unique users, the total linked number, thevalue that indicates the page ranking of the blog, the length of a timeperiod at which there is no access request to the blog, the total numberof page views for the entire blog within a predetermined time period,the value that indicates the increasing tendency of the page view forthe entire blog, the value that indicates the blog update frequency, thenumber of clicks on the advertisement provided on the blog page, and thevalue that indicates the increasing tendency of the data amount for theentire blog, are stored and updated as needed.

Since these values become respective values in accordance with thepopularity degree for each blog, those values are suitable forcalculating the popularity degree index. Note that the calculatedpopularity degree index is also stored as the blog actual-achievementinformation.

Moreover, as the blog actual-achievement information for each article,the number of page views, the number of accessed unique users, the totallinked number, the value that indicates the ranking of the article, thelength of the time period at which there is no access request to thearticle, the number of page views for the article within a predeterminedtime period, the value that indicates the increasing tendency of thepage view for the article, and the number of clicks to the advertisementprovided on the article page, are stored and updated as needed.

Since these values become respective values in accordance with theaccessibility for each article, those values are suitable forcalculating the degree of accessibility (the accessibility index below).Note that the calculated accessibility index is also stored as the blogactual-achievement information.

The size information is information on the total data amount of thearticles contained in the entire blog. Moreover, the size information oneach article may be stored. The size information is updated inaccordance with the update of the blog.

Note that the data amount stored in the blog DB 51 as the sizeinformation and the data amount of the image data stored in the image DB52 may be collectively managed, or may be separately and individuallymanaged.

The determination information is determination information on whether ornot to set the blog as the blog to be compressed, and information on thedetermination for each article by the determining unit 14 for whether ornot to compress based on the popularity degree index and otherinformation. Moreover, information on the determination by thedetermining unit 14 for whether or not to decompress the compressedarticle is also included. That is, the determination informationindicates whether or not to compress or whether or not to decompress.These pieces of information are updated as, for example, flag data.

The article that has stored information as information which is onwhether or not to compress and which indicates to compress is thearticle subjected to the compressing process. Moreover, after thecompressing process, the flag data is cleared, and information thatindicates not to compress (i.e., a status not subjected to thecompressing process) is overwritten.

In addition, the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold is storedfor each blog as the determination information.

The compression and decompression information indicates, for eacharticle in the blog, an execution status of compression ordecompression, such as original status, compressed status, ordecompressed status from the compression. It is appropriate if thecompression and decompression information is defined as statusinformation to identify the status.

Moreover, the execution date and time of the compression or thedecompression is also stored as past-record information on thecompression or the decompression.

In the following description, the article in the original status will bereferred to as the “uncompressed article”, the article in the compressedstatus will be referred to as the “compressed article”, and the articlein the decompressed status from the compression will be referred to asthe “decompressed article”.

Note that the data on the decompressed article may be the same as thedata on the uncompressed article, but since lossy compression isapplied, the decompressed data may have a lower data quality than theoriginal article data. That is, the data on the uncompressed article andthe data on the decompressed article are not always exactly the samedata. Hence, in order to distinguish the decompressed article data afterthe compression from the “uncompressed article”, such an article will bereferred to as the “decompressed article”.

A compressed article tag is set in accordance with the contents for eacharticle.

For example, a phrase like a keyword that appears in the article, acurrent-news phrase, and a genre of the article are set and registeredas the tag. For example, when the compression is executed, the tag inaccordance with the contents of the article is created, and isregistered as the compressed article tag. The compressed article tag isutilized to estimate the contents in the compressed article without adecompression.

Each of the above-described DBs (the blog DB 51, the image DB 52, andmanaging DB 53) may be achieved in any form as long as the blog server 1is accessible. For example, all of each DB may be formed in a storingunit within the same system as the blog server 1, or a part of or all ofthe respective DBs may be separately formed and provided in a computersystem, for example, at a remote site. Needless to say, it isunnecessary that each DB is formed within the single device (e.g., asingle HDD). Moreover, it is unnecessary that each DB is constructed asthe single DB. For example, information stored as the managing DB 53 maybe stored and managed by a plurality of DBs (e.g., a DB for managing auser relating to a blog, and a DB for managing the blog). Each of theabove-described DBs are merely presented as an example in which thestoring unit for the information relating to the process in theembodiment is constructed in the form of a single DB.

3. First Embodiment

An example process as a first embodiment which is executed by the blogserver 1 will be described.

Presently, although a blog can be easily started by general users, thereis a user who loses the interest after uploading several articles, orthere is a user who maintains the interest for a long time. Moreover,there is a popular blog with many access requests, and there is a blogthat has almost no audience.

It is necessary for the blog server 1 to maintain the blogs for thosevarious users without prejudice, but because of this reason, the storageresource load is likely to become large.

Hence, according to this embodiment, the blog server 1 decides a blogand an article to be compressed based on the popularity degree index foreach blog. Moreover, when there is an access request to the compressedarticle, the article is decompressed and distributed.

However, since the compressing process and the decompressing processalso need a certain process load, it is desirable not to execute suchprocesses so frequently. Moreover, decompression of the compressedarticle and distribution of such an article increase a response timetogether with the process load, and thus there is a possibility suchthat the user feels a reduction in performance. Hence, it is desirableto avoid an access request to the compressed article as much aspossible.

Hence, according to this embodiment, the article that has a lowaccessibility is appropriately selected among the articles belonging tothe blog to be compressed, and is set as the article to be compressed.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example compression determining process executedby the blog server 1. According to the compression determining process,the blog to be compressed is determined, and the article to becompressed is determined among the articles contained in the blog to becompressed.

Note that according to this example, a value (the index) in the blogactual-achievement information is directly utilized as the popularitydegree index. Moreover, regarding the accessibility index for eacharticle, a value in the blog actual-achievement information is directlyutilized as the accessibility index.

Respective processes illustrated by the flowcharts from FIG. 5 and up toFIG. 18 to be described later are processes executed by the functions ofthe blog server 1 which are the blog managing unit 11, the popularitydegree index obtaining unit 12, the threshold setting unit 13, thedetermining unit 14, and the compressing and decompressing unit 15 asillustrated in FIG. 3.

The blog server 1 executes the compression determining process in FIG. 5as needed on all of or some blogs stored in the blog DB 51. This is aprocess of determining the blog subjected to the compression at thistime as the blog to be compressed, and of determining which articleamong the articles contained in this blog is set as the article to becompressed.

First, the blog server 1 specifies, in step S101, one blog subjected tothe compression determining process. For example, one blog may beselected in accordance with the sequence of the blog IDs.

The blog server 1 obtains, in step S102, the popularity degree index forthe blog specified as the blog subjected to the process. In thisexample, this is a process of obtaining a piece of information to beadopted as the popularity degree index among the information stored inthe managing DB 53 as the blog actual-achievement information. Morespecifically, a piece of information to be adopted as the popularitydegree index is selected and obtained among the number of page views,the number of accessed unique users, the total linked number, the valuethat indicates the page ranking of the blog, the length of a time periodat which there is no access request to the blog, the total number ofpage views for the entire blog within a predetermined time period, thevalue that indicates an increasing tendency of the page view for theentire blog, the value that indicates the blog update frequency, thenumber of clicks to the advertisement provided on the blog page, and thevalue that indicates an increasing tendency of the data amount for theentire blog, etc.

Note that since the popularity degree index indicates a relativepopularity degree to other blogs, it is not preferable to obtain adifferent index for each blog. That is, when the total number of pageviews of the blog is adopted as the popularity degree index, the totalnumber of page views for each blog is obtained even if the popularitydegree index for any blog is to be obtained.

Next, the blog server 1 executes, in step S103, a process of decidingthe to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold in accordance with thepopularity degree index.

When, for example, the total data amount of the blog allocated to thedescriber per a person is 2 Giga Byte (GB), the to-be-compressed-blogdetermining threshold is set to be a value that is smaller than 2 GB. Asan example, the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold is decidedlike 1.7 GB/1.5 GB/1.2 GB based on high/middle/low of the popularitydegree index.

An example in which the popularity degree index is classified intohigh/middle/low will be described.

For example, the total number of page views of the blog is adopted asthe popularity degree index: and

when the total number of page views is 0 to 10000=the popularity degreeindex is low;

when the total number of the page views is 10001 to 1000000=thepopularity degree index is middle; and

when the total number of page views is equal to or greater than1000001=the popularity degree index is high.

In this case, the blog that has the total number of page views which is50000 is determined as having the middle popularity degree index, andthe to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold is set to be 1.5 GB.

Note that the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold that isclassified into three classes in accordance with the popularity degreeindex is merely an example, and may be classified into two classes ormay be classified into equal to or greater than four classes.

As an example in which the to-be-compressed-blog determining thresholdis classified into equal to or greater than four classes, an example inwhich a formula is utilized will be described.

When, for example, there is a blog that has the maximum total number ofpage views among all the blogs is 100000 (=the maximum of the popularitydegree index is 100000), and the blog subjected to the process at thistime has the total number of page views that is 30000 (=the popularitydegree index is 30000), a calculation may be made such thatto-be-compressed-blog determining threshold=1.2 GB+(30000/100000×0.5GB)=1.35 GB. According to this formula, the to-be-compressed-blogdetermining threshold for the blog that has the popularity degreeindex=100000 is 1.7 GB, and the to-be-compressed-blog determiningthreshold for the blog that has the popularity degree index=00000 is 1.2GB. That is, the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold is finelyset in accordance with the popularity degree index. Note that in thiscase, it is unnecessity to classify the popularity degree index intothree classes that are high/middle/low, etc.

Moreover, the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold may becalculated in view of the distribution of the popularity degree indexesof all the blogs, and may be calculated based on only the popularitydegree index of the blog subjected to the process.

Subsequently, the blog server 1 executes, in step S104, a process ofdetermining whether or not the total data amount in the blog subjectedto the process exceeds the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold.

When the total data amount in the blog does not exceed theto-be-compressed-blog determining threshold, the blog server 1transitions the process to a process in step S111 to be described later.

In contrast, when the total data amount in the blog exceeds theto-be-compressed-blog determining threshold, the blog server 1determines that the blog subjected to the process is the blog to becompressed, stores the determination result as the determinationinformation in the managing DB 53, and then executes respectiveprocesses in steps S105 to S110 so as to determine whether or not tocompress each article in the blog.

The blog server 1 selects, in the step S105, one article in the blog.

The blog server 1 checks, in the step S106, whether or not the selectedarticle has been already compressed. This can be carried out byreferring to, for example, the compression and decompression informationin the managing DB 53.

When the article has been already compressed, since the determination onwhether or not to compress this article is unnecessary, the processprogresses to step S110. If it is checked in the step S110 whether ornot the process has been completed for all the articles, and when notcompleted, the process returns to the step S105 and selects the nextarticle.

Note that all the articles in the step S110 mean all the articlessubjected to the process at this time. It may be all the articles in theblog, or may be some articles (e.g., the article posted in a specifictime period) in the blog.

When the article selected as the article subjected to the process in thestep S105 is the article that has not been compressed yet, the blogserver 1 progresses the process to the step S107 from the step S106, andobtains the blog actual-achievement information that is theaccessibility index for this article. The obtainment of theaccessibility index in this example is a process of obtaining a piece ofinformation adopted as the accessibility index from the informationstored in the managing DB 53 as the blog actual-achievement information.More specifically, a piece of information to be adopted as theaccessibility index is selected and obtained among the number of pageviews for the article, the number of accessed unique users, the totallinked number, the value that indicates the ranking of the article, thelength of a time period at which there is no access request to thearticle, the number of page views for the article within a predeterminedtime period, the value that indicates an increasing tendency of the pageviews for the article, and the number of clicks to the advertisementprovided on the article page, etc., all stored in the managing DB 53.

Note that regarding the accessibility index, it is desirable to obtainthe same index for each article like the popularity degree index.

Subsequently, the blog server 1 determines, in the step S108, whether ornot to compress the article based on the accessibility index. That is,when the accessibility is high, the article is determined as not to becompressed, and when the accessibility is low, the article is determinedas the article that can be compressed (or as the article that should becompressed).

When, for example, the length of a time period at which there is noaccess request to the article is selected as the accessibility index, adetermination is made on whether or not such a time period is equal toor longer than three years, and the article that has no access requestfor equal to or longer than three years is determined as the article tobe compressed due to the low accessibility. Note that the value threeyears (a threshold for the determination) is merely an example. Thisvalue may be changed for each describer, and may be the uniform and samevalue. When the value is changed for each describer, it is desirable todecide in view of the distribution of the accessibility indexes of therespective articles belonging to the blog subjected to the process. Thatis, in the case of the blog that has many articles which have the lowaccessibility indexes, the above threshold for the determination “threeyears” may be extended to “five years”. Moreover, in the case of theblog that has many articles which have the high accessibility indexes,the above threshold for the determination “three years” may be shortenedto “one year”.

As described above, after the blog to be compressed is determined inconsideration of the popularity degree index of the blog in the stepsS103 and S104, the determination on whether or not to compress is madein the steps S107 and S108 in consideration of the accessibility index.

This enables a determination on whether or not to compress the articlethat is not accessed frequently in consideration of the popularity ofthe blog itself.

For example, with a time period at which there is no access to thearticle at all like “the time period at which there is no access to thearticle continues for equal to or longer than three years” being as anindex value, the article that has the index value which satisfies acertain condition may be compressed. In this case, however, it is notalways true that the accessibility is properly determined.

For example, regarding the article that has no access at all for threeyears among the multiple articles in the blog that is popular as awhole, and the article that has no access at all for three years amongthe multiple articles in the blog that is unpopular as a whole, theformer article may have a higher possibility to be accessed next. Thatis, it is difficult to properly determine the actual accessibility byonly the index of the accessibility of the article. In other words, thedetermination on the article to be compressed with the popular blog andthe unpopular blog being under the same condition is not always suitablein view of a desire to reduce opportunities of compression anddecompression as much as possible.

Accordingly, the blog server 1 utilizes, in the step S104, theto-be-compressed-blog determining threshold that reflects the popularityof the blog, making the popular blog not likely to be the blog to becompressed.

In subsequent step S109, the blog server 1 stores the determinationresult on whether or not to compress the article as the determinationinformation. For example, the flag which indicates compression or notcompression and which is stored in the managing DB 53 as thedetermination information for the article is updated or maintained.

When the determination on whether or not to compress one articlecompletes through the above procedures, the blog server 1 checks, in thestep S110, whether or not the determination has completed for all thearticles subjected to the process at this time in the blog subjected tothe process presently, and when not completed yet, the process returnsto the step S105, and the next article is selected. Subsequently, thesteps S106 to S109 are executed.

When the determination on whether or not to compress has completed forall the article subjected to the process at this time in a certain blog,it is checked, in step S111, whether or not to subsequently execute theprocess on the other blog. When the similar process is executed on theother blog, the process returns to the step S101, the other blog isspecified as the blog subjected to the process, and then the similarprocess is executed.

When, for example, the process has been completed for all the blogssubjected to the process at this time, the compression determiningprocess in FIG. 5 is terminated from the step S111.

The blog server 1 executes such a compression determining process asillustrated in this FIG. 5 as needed. For example, the process may beexecuted for all the blogs stored in the blog DB 51 periodically. Thiscauses each blog to be determined whether or not each article should becompressed, and the determination information is stored in the managingDB 53.

Note that it is desirable for each blog to execute the compressiondetermining process as illustrated in FIG. 5 not only once at a certaintime but also repeatedly for a certain time period. This is because itis expected that the accessed situation for the article changes momentby moment, and the article that has no access for equal to or longerthan a predetermined time period may occur.

The blog server 1 executes the above compression determining process asappropriate, and executes the compressing processes illustrated in FIG.6 as appropriate. For example, the compressing process is periodicallyexecuted for all or some blogs.

As the compressing process illustrated in FIG. 6, first, the blog server1 specifies, in step S201, one blog subjected to the process.

The blog server 1 obtains, in step S202, the determination informationon the blog specified as being subjected to the process. That is, thisis the determination information stored in the managing DB 53 inassociation with the blog ID of this blog. More specifically, this is aprocess of checking, for example, information indicating whether or notthe blog is the blog to be compressed and determined in the compressiondetermining process in FIG. 5, and the flag information that indicateswhether or not to compress for each article.

The determination information enables to check whether or not the blogis the blog to be compressed, and whether or not each article in thisblog should be compressed.

Accordingly, the blog server 1 determines, in step S203, whether or notthe blog subjected to the process is the blog to be compressed.

When the blog subjected to the process is not the blog to be compressed,the blog server 1 progresses the process from the step S203 to stepS210, and completes the compressing process on this blog. Next, it isalso checked whether or not to execute the compressing process for theother blogs. When the compressing process is executed on the other blog,the process returns to the step S201, and the other one blog isspecified as the blog subjected to the process.

When there is equal to or greater than one article to be compressed, theblog server 1 progresses the process from the step S203 to step S204,and specifies the article to be compressed among the articles belongingto the blog to be compressed. When the plurality of articles is thearticles to be compressed, all the articles to be compressed arespecified.

Subsequently, the blog server 1 compresses the article in the step S205.That is, the data on the one or the plurality of articles specified inthe step S204 is compressed. Next, the article that becomes thecompressed data is stored in the blog DB 51 and the image DB 52 inassociation with the blog.

What compression is to be executed in the step S205 may vary.

First, as the setting for the part to be compressed, i.e., as the kindfor which part in the article data is to be compressed, the followingsare considerable.

Both the text data and the image data in the article are compressed.

All the text data in the article is compressed.

A part of the text data in the article is compressed.

All the image data in the article is compressed.

A part of the image data in the article is compressed.

According to the compression on both the text data and the image data inthe article, a compression effect is enhanced, and thus a reductioneffect of a necessary storage capacity is enhanced.

According to the compression on all the text data in the article,depending on the text data amount and a compression percentage, thecompression effect (the capacity reduction effect) is enhanced. Inparticular, this is effective for the blog that has the article contentswhich are mainly text data.

According to the compression on the part of the text data, a responseand a distribution if an access is made after the compression areprompt. For example, the last half part (the part not appear in a firstview at the time of viewing) of the blog is compressed. It is expectedthat the compressed part is decompressed and distributed as will bedescribed later, but since the first view part is not compressed, thedata can be promptly (without a decompressing process) distributed tothe user terminal 5. Moreover, when the last half part is decompressedand distributed while the first view is being displayed on the userterminal 5, the user feels as if there is no delay in response.

Moreover, the compression on only the text data has advantages such thata process load is little in comparison with a case in which the imagedata is compressed, and the process time is short.

According to the compression on all the image data in the article, sincethe part that has a large data amount is compressed, the compressioneffect (the capacity reduction effect) is enhanced. Regarding thecompression on the image data, when the compression that decreases theresolution of the image is executed, the capacity reduction effect isparticularly high. When there are multiple pieces of the image data, thecompression may be executed on not all the image data but some pieces ofthe image data.

When some pieces of the image data in the article are compressed, it isappropriate if the image that does not appear in the first view at thetime of viewing should be selected and compressed. In that case, when anaccess is made after the compression, it is appropriate if the imagedata that does not need a decompression should be distributed first.Hence, the user feels as if there is no delay in response. Next, thesubsequent image data may be decompressed and distributed while thefirst view is being displayed on the user terminal 5.

The above setting for the part to be compressed in the article may befixed, or may be changed in accordance with a status. For example, anautomatic selection may be permitted in accordance with the storageresource status of the blog DB 51 and that of the image DB 52, etc.

When, for example, the resource of the blog DB 51 which can recordbecomes equal to or lower than a predetermined quantity, the compressionon the text data is selected, and when the resource of the image DB 52which can record becomes equal to or lower than a predeterminedquantity, the compression on the image data is selected. When thestorable capacities of both the blog DB 51 and the image DB 52 decrease,both the text data and the image data are compressed, etc.

Moreover, the setting for the part to be compressed may be automaticallyselected for each blog and for each article.

An example of deciding the compressing process details in accordancewith the contents of the article is as follows.

When the text data in the article is equal to or larger than apredetermined amount, only the text data is compressed, and when lessthan the predetermined amount, the text data and the image data areentirely compressed.

When the image data is contained in the article, only the image data iscompressed.

Furthermore, as an example of selecting the part to be compressed foreach blog, a determination is made on whether the blog is mainly a textblog or is mainly an image blog in accordance with a ratio between thetext and the image in the entire blog. In the case of the mainly textblog, the text data may be compressed, and in the case of the mainlyimage blog, the image data may be compressed.

Conversely, when a priority is given to the distribution speed to befelt by the user when an access is made, in the case of the mainly textblog, the image data may be compressed, and in the case of the mainlyimage blog, the text data may be compressed.

Note that when a motion image is contained as the image data,compression on both the motion image and the sound data, or either onemay be selected.

In addition to the above-described setting for a part to be compressed,a setting for a compression scheme is also broadly considerable. Variousschemes are well known for compression on the image data and on the textdata, and the compression percentage is selectable variously. Selectioncan be also made for lossless compression or for lossy compression.

Regarding to this compression scheme, a certain compression scheme maybe fixedly applied, or may be selected in accordance with a status.

When, for example, the resource of the blog DB 51 or that of the imageDB 52 which can record becomes equal to or lower than a predeterminedamount, the compression scheme may be changed to a compression schemethat has a higher compression percentage.

Moreover, the compression scheme may be automatically selected for eachblog and for each article.

For example, the lower the popularity of the blog is, the higher thecompression percentage is set, or the compression scheme that has adifferent compression percentage is selected in accordance with the lowaccessibility to the article, and the like.

After executing, in the step S205 in FIG. 6, the compressing process onthe one or the plurality of articles to be compressed in the blogsubjected to the process presently, the blog server 1 updates (fromcompression permitted to compression unpermitted) the information (flaginformation) that indicates whether or not to compress the articlesubjected to the compression process.

Subsequently, the blog server 1 updates, in step S206, the compressionand decompression information in the managing DB 53. In this case, forexample, the flag information is updated so as to indicate that thecompressed article in the blog is in the compressed status. Moreover, acompression past-record is also added.

The blog server 1 sets, in step S207, the tag for each compressedarticle. The tag in this case is information that indicates a keywordreflecting the contents of the article and genre information of thearticle, and is utilizable for searching and pick-out of the article.

Compression of the article results in a difficulty in text searching forthe article. That is, when it is desirable to also put the compressedarticle in a search range, it is necessary to take a time for executingthe decompression at the time of searching. Hence, the tag is set andregistered in advance.

When the process in the step S207 is being executed, regarding thearticle subjected to the process, both the compressed article and theoriginal article before the compression (i.e., the uncompressed article)are stored.

Accordingly, in the step S207, the blog server 1 picks out a frequentlyappearing word, picks out a noun by morphological analysis, obtains thegenre information, etc., from the data on the uncompressed article, andsets one or the plurality of phrases to be registered as the tags.

Next, the blog server 1 registers, in step S208, such a tag as acompressed article tag in the managing DB 53. That is, one or theplurality of phrases like a keyword is registered in association witheach of the compressed articles.

Note that the setting and registration of the compressed article tag areexecuted on a given article in the example illustrated in FIG. 6 whenthis article is compressed, but may be executed on all the articles inadvance. In particular, the tag is applied for the article search, andif the tags are registered in advance for all the articles, such a tagis applicable as the compressed article tag in this embodiment. Hence,it is unnecessary to execute the steps S207 and S208.

In the case of, however, a system that does not particularly registerthe tags for all the articles, by registering the compressed articletags in the steps S207 and S208 as illustrated in FIG. 6, the processbecomes a minimum-requisite process for the necessary article. Hence,this is advantageous for preventing a process load on the blog server 1from increasing.

The blog server 1 deletes, in step S209, the data on the originalarticle before the compression for the compressed article. Needless tosay, when only a part of the article is compressed, the original data onthe compressed part only is deleted. Moreover, when the process ofcompressing again the decompressed article is executed, the decompressedarticle that is the original data on the article before the compressionis deleted.

When the compressing process has been completed for the one blog throughthe above processes, the blog server 1 checks, in step S210, whether ornot there is other blog subjected to the process.

When the process for all the blogs subjected to the process at this timehas been completed, the compressing process in FIG. 6 is terminated fromthe step S210.

By executing the above compressing process in FIG. 6, the actualcompressing process is executed on the article determined as compressionpermitted by the compression determining process in FIG. 5, and therecovery of the storage resource is achieved.

Subsequently, the process of the blog server 1 when there is an accessrequest to the blog or the article therein will be described withreference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

The blog server 1 that confirms, in step S301, the receive of the accessrequest from the user terminal 5, determines, in subsequent step S302,whether or not the requested article is the compressed article.

When the article is not the compressed article, the blog server 1progresses the process from the step S302 to step S303, and distributesthe requested article in a normal scheme. That is, the webpage data onthe corresponding article is read from the blog DB 51, and istransmitted to the user terminal 5. This enables the audience who isusing the user terminal 5 to view the desired article.

When the article to which the access request is made is the compressedarticle, the blog server 1 progresses the process to step S304, andexecutes the decompressing process. That is, the data in the compressedstatus on the corresponding article is read from the blog DB 51, and thedecompressing process is executed. Next, the webpage data that has beendecompressed is transmitted to the user terminal 5 in step S305. Hence,even if the article has been compressed, the audience who is using theuser terminal 5 can view the desired article.

Note that when a part of the data on the article, in particular, thedata other than the region to be appeared as the first view in thewebpage data is compressed as described above, the blog server 1 canfirst transmit the uncompressed part of the article to the userterminal, execute the decompressing process on the compressed partduring such a transmission, and transmit the data that has thedecompression completed. This enables a distribution that does not causethe audience to feel the decompressing process time, and thus theservice performance of the blog server 1 can be maintained.

Moreover, when, in addition to the compression on the part other thanthe first view, a part of the article is compressed, it is likewisedesirable to first transmit the uncompressed part in the article.

After the compressed article is decompressed and distributed, exampleprocesses as illustrated in FIG. 8A, FIG. 8B, and FIG. 8C areconsiderable.

First, in the example case in which the process progresses to step S310in FIG. 8A from the step S305 in FIG. 7, the blog server 1 does notstore the decompressed article, i.e., the decompressed data on thecompressed article, i.e., the distributed webpage data, and deletes suchdata.

This is based on an assumption that the present access request to suchan article is an exceptional access, and this article still has the lowaccessibility and thus being compressed. Hence, the compressed articleis stored as it is.

When a subsequent access occurs, the decompressing process is executedaccess by access. Although a decompressing process load is produced inaccordance with the access request, since it can be considered that thenumber of accesses is small at all, an advantageous effect in storageresource can be maintained by storing such an article in the compressedstatus.

In contrast, an occurrence of the access to the compressed article canalso be considered such that the accessibility for the compressedarticle (the article determined as having a low accessibility) may beincreasing.

Hence, the example in which the process progresses to the step S320 inFIG. 8B from the step S305 in FIG. 7 is expected. The blog server 1combines, in the step S320, the decompressed article data in the blog.Next, the compressed article is deleted in step S321. That is, insteadof the compressed article combined in the blog so far, the data on thedecompressed article (the decompressed article) is combined in the blog.

The blog server 1 updates, in step S322, the compression anddecompression information in the managing DB 53. That is, theinformation is updated in such a way that the corresponding article inthe blog is the data on the article in the decompressed status from thecompression (i.e., the decompressed article). Moreover, past-recordinformation like the date and time of the decompression is added.

When the decompression is executed as described above, since thecompressed article is replaced with the decompressed article, the dataon the article can be distributed without a decompression when there isan access request subsequently.

Note that when the number of subsequent accesses to the decompressedarticle is small and the determination is made in the compressiondetermining process in FIG. 5 that the accessibility is still low, suchan article is compressed again by the compressing process in FIG. 6.Hence, when the article is still unpopular, the data on the article iscompressed again, and thus there is no large disadvantage in comparisonwith the process in FIG. 8A in view of maintaining the storage resource.

Moreover, when the compressing process is executed by lossy compression,even if the data on the decompressed article decompressed by thesubsequent decompressing process is stored, the occupied storage area inthe blog DB 51 is smaller than a case in which the uncompressed articleis stored, thus advantageous.

FIG. 8C illustrates the example in which the decompressed article isstored together with the compressed article. When the process progressesto the step S330 in FIG. 8C from the step S305 in FIG. 7, the blogserver 1 registers the decompressed data on the article in associationwith the blog. However, the compressed article is stored as it is. Next,the blog server 1 updates, in step S331, the compression anddecompression information in the managing DB 53. That is, theinformation is updated so as to indicate that there is the decompressedarticle for the corresponding article in the blog. Moreover, thepast-record information like the decompression date and time is added.

In this case, by storing the decompressed article, the data on thearticle can be distributed without the decompressing process when anaccess request is made subsequently.

However, by storing both the decompressed article and the compressedarticle, a load on the storage resource increases. Hence, for example,the decompressed article may be deleted after a certain time period haselapsed. This achieves a circumstance enabling a distribution withoutthe decompressing process when an access is made again for a certaintime period when there is the access request.

Moreover, when the compressed article and the decompressed article areboth stored in this way, and when the article becomes the article to becompressed by the subsequent process in FIG. 5, in the compressingprocess in FIG. 6, a process of deleting the decompressed article may beexecuted.

4. Second Embodiment

According to a second embodiment, the popularity degree index to beobtained is a value calculated from plural pieces of information. Thatis, according to the first embodiment, one of the pieces of informationstored in the managing DB 53 as the blog actual-achievement informationis obtained as the popularity degree index, while according to thesecond embodiment, the popularity degree index is calculated andobtained from the plural pieces of information stored in the managing DB53 as the blog actual-achievement information.

Similarly, regarding the accessibility index for each article, theaccessibility is also calculated and obtained from plural pieces ofinformation stored as the blog actual-achievement information.

In order to do so, the blog server 1 may calculate the popularity degreeindex and the accessibility index before executing the compressiondetermining process illustrated in FIG. 5. Needless to say, thecalculation may be executed in each case.

FIG. 9 illustrates the process of calculating the popularity degreeindex.

As illustrated in the figure, the blog server 1 specifies, in step S401,the blog subjected to the process, i.e., the blog subjected to thecalculation of the popularity degree index.

Subsequently, the blog server 1 obtains, in step S402, the blogactual-achievement information utilized for the calculation of thepopularity degree index from the managing DB 53. More specifically,plural pieces of information are obtained among information, such as thetotal number of page views of the blog, the number of unique users whohave accessed the blog, the total linked number, the value thatindicates the page ranking of the blog, the length of a time period atwhich there is no access request to the blog, the total number of pageviews for the entire blog within a predetermined time period, the valuethat indicates the increasing tendency of the page view for the entireblog, the value that indicates the update frequency of the blog, thenumber of clicks to the advertisement provided on the blog page, and thevalue that indicates the increasing tendency of the data amount for theentire blog, all stored as the blog actual-achievement information foreach blog.

The blog server 1 calculates, in step S403, the popularity degree indexfrom the plural pieces of obtained information. When the total pageviews of the blog and the number of unique users who have accessed theblog are obtained from the managing DB 53 as the information forcalculating the popularity degree index, a value that becomes a sourcefor calculating the popularity degree index is obtained for each of thetotal number of page views of the blog and the number of unique userswho have accessed the blog. For example, a value (a normalized value)obtained by normalizing the total number of page views of the blog into1 (low popularity) to 100 (high popularity) may be calculated, and avalue (a normalized value) obtained by normalizing the number of uniqueusers who have accessed the blog into 1 to 100 may be calculated. Thatis, executed in the process in the step S403 are a process of adding thenormalized value of the total number of page views of the blog and thenormalized value of the number of unique users who have accessed theblog, and a process of calculating an average value. Accordingly, thepopularity degree index of the blog subjected to the process iscalculated.

By obtaining the popularity degree index from the plural pieces ofinformation, a further comprehensive estimation of the popularity degreeof the blog subjected to the process is enabled. In the case of, forexample, the blog which has a large total number of page views, butwhich has a small number of accessed unique users, it is estimatablethat this is a blog which is popular to particular users. Hence,obtainment of the popularity degree index by combining the plural piecesof information is often effective for calculating the proper popularitydegree index for each blog.

Note that the above-described obtainment of the popularity degree indexusing the two pieces of information is merely an example, and thecalculation may be executed using equal to or greater than three piecesof information, or the calculation may be executed using all theindexes.

The blog server 1 stores, in step S404, the calculated popularity degreeindex in the managing DB 53.

By storing the popularity degree index in the managing DB 53, thepopularity degree index itself stored in the process in the step S102may be obtained in the compression determining process illustrated inFIG. 5.

Next, the blog server 1 determines, in step S405, whether or not thereis the next blog subjected to the process, and when there is the nextblog subjected to the process, returns the process to the step S401, andspecifies the next blog. Conversely, when there is no next blogsubjected to the process, the popularity degree index calculatingprocess illustrated in FIG. 9 is terminated from the step S405.

Note that the blog subjected to the process may be all the blogs storedin the blog DB 51, or may be some of the blogs. When some of the blogsare subjected to the process, the blog that has a large change in blogactual-achievement information stored in the managing DB 53 like theblog which has the number of accesses keenly increasing may be subjectedto the process. This enables an efficient selection of the blog thatneeds a re-calculation of the popularity degree index as the blogsubjected to the process.

FIG. 10 illustrates a process of calculating the accessibility index.

The blog server 1 specifies, in step S501, one blog among the blogs tobe compressed. In the following processes, the accessibility index iscalculated for the specified blog.

The blog server 1 obtains, in step S502, the information utilized forcalculating the accessibility index for each of the plurality ofarticles contained in the blog subjected to the process from the blogactual-achievement information in the blog DB 51. That is, when the blogthat has ten articles is subjected to the process, the information isobtained for each of the ten articles.

More specifically, the plural pieces of information are obtained amonginformation, such as the total number of page views for each article,the number of unique users who have accessed the article, the totallinked number for each article, the value that indicates the ranking ofthe article, the length of a time period at which there is no accessrequest to the article, the number of page views for the article withina predetermined time period, the value that indicates the increasingtendency of the page view for the article, and the number of clicks tothe advertisement provided on the article page, all stored as the blogactual-achievement information for each article.

The blog server 1 calculates, in step S503, the accessibility index foreach article from the plural pieces of obtained information. At thistime, the accessibility index of the article may be obtained by addingthe normalized value for each kind of information, or may be calculatedby weighting in accordance with the importance for each kind ofinformation.

Subsequently, the blog server 1 stores, in step S504, the calculatedaccessibility index for each article in the managing DB 53. By storingthe accessibility index in the managing DB 53, the stored accessibilityindex itself may be obtained in the process in the step S107 in thecompression determining process as illustrated in FIG. 5.

Next, the blog server 1 determines, in step S505, whether or not thereis the blog to be compressed which becomes the next blog subjected tothe process, and when there is the next blog to be processed, returnsthe process to the step S501, and specifies the next blog to becompressed. Conversely, when there is no blog to be compressed thatbecomes the next blog subjected to the process, the accessibility indexcalculating process illustrated in FIG. 10 is terminated from the stepS505.

Note that the blog to be compressed and subjected to the process may beall the blogs to be compressed, or may be some of the blogs. As for anexample in which some of the blogs are to be subjected to the process,for example, the blog which remarkably exceeds the to-be-compressed-blogdetermining threshold and which needs all the articles to be compresseddoes not need the calculation of the accessibility index for eacharticle. Hence, such a blog may be excluded from the blog subjected tothe process. In other words, the blog to be compressed which slightlyexceeds the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold needs adetermination on which article should be compressed, and such a blog issubjected to the calculation of the accessibility index.

Note that the accessibility index calculating process in FIG. 10 takesonly the blog subjected to the compressing process as the blog subjectedto the process. This can be achieved by, for example, after calculatingthe popularity degree index by executing the process in FIG. 9 on allthe blogs stored in the blog DB 51, executing the process in the stepS104 in FIG. 5 to determine, for each blog, whether or not the blog isto be compressed. Next, the accessibility index calculating process (inparticular, the processes in the steps S502 to S504) as illustrated inFIG. 10 is executed on the blog determined as the blog to be compressed.

Moreover, the above result can be achieved by executing the steps S402and S403 in FIG. 9 instead of the step S102 illustrated in FIG. 5, andby executing the steps S502 and S503 in FIG. 10 instead of Step S107illustrated in FIG. 5. At this time, the processes in the steps S502 andS503 may be executed on only the article determined as subjected to theprocess in the step S105.

Note that when the popularity degree index calculating process in FIG. 9and the accessibility index calculating process in FIG. 10 areperiodically executed by batch process, the object subjected to thepopularity degree index calculating process and the accessibility indexcalculating process may be all the blogs and all the articles stored inblog DB 51.

For example, the processes illustrated in FIGS. 9 and 10 may be executedon all the blogs and all the articles, and then the compressiondetermining process and the compressing process illustrated in FIGS. 5and 6 may be executed. This enables an appropriate execution of thecompressing process. In this case, the process in the step S501 is notthe process of specifying the blog to be compressed but the process ofselecting the blog subjected to the process.

When the popularity degree index and the accessibility index arecalculated from the plural pieces of information, the respective indexesare calculated in advance by batch process, etc. This enhances thedegree of freedom for the scheduling of the process.

This is suitable for a case in which, for example, calculation of thepopularity degree index at a short time interval is desired in order tocope with the keen increase in popularity of a certain blog.

5. Third Embodiment

According to a third embodiment, an example will be described in whichthe compression is executed from the article that has a lowaccessibility index until the total data amount of the blog subjected tothe process becomes equal to or smaller than a predetermined value.

FIG. 11 illustrates a flow of the compressing process. Since the outlineof the flow of the process is the same as that of the compressingprocess illustrated in FIG. 6, the detailed description will be omittedas appropriate.

The blog server 1 selects one of the blogs to be compressed by executingthe processes in the steps S201 to S203. Next, the respective followingprocesses are executed on the selected blog.

First, the blog server 1 selects, in step S211, the article with a lowaccessibility index among the articles that belong to the selected blog.Next, the compression on the article, etc., is executed by executing theprocesses in the steps S205 to S209 on the article. The process in thestep S211 is a process instead of the process in the step S204 in FIG.6.

The blog server 1 that has completed the compression on the one articledetermines, in subsequent step S212, whether or not the total dataamount of the entire blog is equal to or smaller than the predeterminedvalue.

When the total data amount is larger than predetermined value, thedetermination is made such that the compression on each article in thisblog is still insufficient, and the process returns to the process inthe step S211, and the next article is selected.

Note that when there is no article to be selected next because all thearticles have been compressed, the process transitions to the step S210without a transition to the step S211, and a determination may be madeon whether or not to start the process for the next blog.

When the total data amount of the selected blog becomes equal to orsmaller than the predetermined value, the blog server 1 terminates thecompressing process on this blog, and executes, in the step S210, theprocess of selecting the next blog subjected to the process.

The predetermined value applied in the process in the step S212 may be,for example, the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold. It becomesunnecessary to newly calculate and store a value applied for thedetermination by applying the to-be-compressed-blog determiningthreshold. This contributes to reduction of a process load and tosecurement of the storage resource.

Moreover, in addition to the above case, a value obtained by multiplyingthe to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold by a coefficient like0.8 may be applied as the predetermined value. When the blog to becompressed is owned by the user who frequently posts the articles, itbecomes possible to suppress that the total data amount exceeds againthe to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold by a single posting.Accordingly, since a time until the blog becomes again the blog to becompressed is extended, the execution frequency of the compressingprocess illustrated in FIG. 11 (or the processes in the steps S105 toS110 in FIG. 5) can be reduced. This achieves a reduction of the processload on the blog server 1.

According to the third embodiment, the compressing process on eacharticle is immediately terminated in response to the total data amountof the blog subjected to the process which becomes equal to or smallerthan the predetermined value. Hence, the compressing process that islikely to be excessive can be suppressed, and thus achieving a reductionof the process load on the blog server 1.

Note that the predetermined value may be provided or not provided inaccordance with a situation. When, for example, the accessibilityindexes of all the articles of the blog subjected to the process arelow, the compressing process on all the articles (i.e., the processes inthe steps S205 to S209 in FIG. 11) may be executed without setting thepredetermined value. Such a blog has a low possibility for an executionof the decompressing process on the article in response to theaudience's access. Hence, the storage resource can be secured without aconcern for an increase in process load by the execution ofdecompressing process.

6. Fourth Embodiment

According to a fourth embodiment, an example will be described in whicha determination is made on whether or not the compression on the articlebelonging to the blog is permitted based on how much the total dataamount of the blog exceeds the to-be-compressed-blog determiningthreshold.

FIG. 12 illustrates a compression determining process. Since the outlineof the flow of the process is the same as that of the compressiondetermining process illustrated in FIG. 5, the detailed description willbe omitted as appropriate.

The blog server 1 determines, in the steps S101 to S104, whether or notthe blog is the blog to be compressed. Regarding the blog determined asthe blog to be compressed at this time, how much the total data amountexceeds the to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold (i.e., theexceeding capacity) is grasped.

Subsequently, the blog server 1 determines whether or not the articleselected in the step S105 should be compressed by executing thesubsequent steps S106 to S109. At this time, whether or not to compressis determined in accordance with the largeness of the accessibilityindex, according to this embodiment, whether or not to compress is alsodetermined with the above-described exceeding capacity being taken intoconsideration.

More specifically, in the foregoing first embodiment, for example, theexample has been described with respect to the step S108 in FIG. 5 inwhich, when the length of a time period at which there is no accessrequest for the article is selected as the accessibility index, it isdetermined whether or not the length of the time period is equal to orlonger than three years, and the article that has no access request forequal to or longer than three years is determined as having a lowaccessibility, and thus determined as the article to be compressed.

According to this embodiment, the threshold that is “three years” ischanged in accordance with the exceeding capacity. As an example, forthe blog that has a large exceeding capacity, i.e., the blog that has alarge number of articles which should be compressed, the threshold thatis “two years” is set. This causes the article that has no accessrequest for 2.5 years to be also subjected to the compressing process,and thus the securement of the storage resource is prompted. Moreover,for the blog that has a small exceeding capacity, i.e., the blog thathas merely a small number of articles which should be compressed, thethreshold that is “five years” is set. Hence, the article that has noaccess request for three years is excluded from the article subjected tothe compressing process. This decreases the possibility of an occurrenceof the decompressing process on the compressed article, while at thesame time, efficiently secures the storage resource.

Therefore, the blog server 1 obtains, in step S112, the accessibilityindex, and obtains, in step S113, a determination threshold based on theexceeding capacity of the total data amount of the blog. In the stepS113, instead of the obtainment of the determination threshold, aprocess of calculating the determination threshold, i.e., the process ofcalculating the threshold, such as two years, three years, or fiveyears, as described above may be executed.

According to the fourth embodiment, by setting the appropriatedetermination threshold in accordance with the total data amount of eachblog, an appropriate storage resource is secured.

7. Fifth Embodiment

According to a fifth embodiment, the blog server 1 executes, for eacharticle, not only the determination on whether or not to compress basedon the popularity degree index and on the accessibility index, but alsoa determination on whether or not to decompress the already-compressedarticle.

The blog server 1 executes, for example, a compression and decompressiondetermining process in FIG. 13 periodically or at a predeterminedtiming. The process in FIG. 13 can be considered as the process insteadof the compression determining process in FIG. 5 in the firstembodiment. The same step number will be given to the same process asthat of the process in FIG. 5, and the duplicated description will beomitted.

The blog server 1 specifies the blog subjected to the process (S101),obtains the popularity degree index (S114), and then executes adetermination on each article in the steps S105, S115, S116, S117, andS110.

In the step S114, the blog actual-achievement information as thepopularity degree index may be obtained like the step S102 in FIG. 5, orthe popularity degree index calculated in FIG. 9 may be obtained.

The blog server 1 that has selected one article in the step S105progresses the process to the step S115 to obtain the accessibilityindex regardless of whether or not the article has been alreadycompressed. Regarding this process, the blog actual-achievementinformation as the accessibility index may be obtained like the stepS107 of FIG. 5, or the accessibility index calculated in FIG. 10 may beobtained.

Next, the blog server 1 executes, in the step S116, the determination onwhether or not to compress and on whether or not to decompress.

That is, the blog server 1 determines whether or not to compress likethe step S108 in FIG. 5 for the uncompressed article or the decompressedarticle.

In contrast, for the compressed article, the blog server 1 executes thedetermination on whether or not to decompress by utilizing thepopularity degree index and by the accessibility index.

For example, the popularity degree index is classified into threeclasses, such as high/middle/low, like the determination on whether ornot to compress by utilizing information such as the total number ofpage views, etc.

Next, as the accessibility index, for example, the number of page viewsN for the article is utilized: and the blog that has a low popularitydegree index; decompressed when the number of page views N for thearticle is equal to or greater than N1.

the blog that has a middle popularity degree index; decompressed whenthe number of page views N for the article is equal to or greater thanN2.

the blog that has a high popularity degree index; decompressed when thenumber of page views N for the article is equal to or greater than N3.

However, N1>N2>N3.

That is, in the case of the compressed article of a popular blog, thedecompression is permitted when the page view actual achievement hasslightly increased. However, in the case of the compressed article of anunpopular blog, the determination is made with the threshold forpermitting the decompression in accordance with the number of page viewsbeing increased. Hence, the article of the popular blog is likely to bepermitted for decompression even once compressed. This is because thatthe accessibility is likely to increase in the case of the popular blog.

As another example, for example, as the accessibility index, a value Kthat indicates the increasing tendency of the page view for the articleis utilized: and the blog with a low popularity degree index;decompressed when the increasing tendency value K is equal to or greaterthan K1.

the blog with a middle popularity degree index; decompressed when theincreasing tendency value K is equal to or greater than K2.

the blog with a high popularity degree index; decompressed when theincreasing tendency value K is equal to or greater than K3.

However, K1>K2>K3.

That is, in the case of the compressed article of a popular blog, when aslight increasing tendency of the page view is observed, thedecompression is permitted. However, in the case of the compressedarticle of an unpopular blog, a determination is made such that thedecompression is permitted when a remarkable increasing tendency of thepage view is observed. In this case, also, the article of the popularblog is likely to be permitted for decompression even once compressed.

Next, the blog server 1 stores, in the step S117, the determination onwhether or not to compress or the determination on whether or not todecompress for the article as determination information. For example,the flag on whether or not to compress or the flag on whether or not todecompress for the article is updated or maintained as the determinationinformation in the managing DB 53.

The steps S110 and S111 are the same as those in FIG. 5.

The blog server 1 also executes a compressing and decompressing processin FIG. 14 as needed. This is a process instead of the compressingprocess in FIG. 6 in the first embodiment. The same process as that inFIG. 6 will be denoted by the same step number, and the detailedexplanation will be omitted.

The blog server 1 specifies, in the step S201, the blog subjected to theprocess, and obtains, in the step S202, the determination information.

The blog server 1 refers to the determination information on whether ornot to compress and determines whether or not there is the article to becompressed in step S213. Next, the article to be compressed is specifiedin the step S204. Although a determination on whether or not there isany compressed article may be made in the step S213, a determination onwhether or not the blog subjected to the process is the blog to becompressed may be made.

When one or the plurality of articles are specified as the articles tobe compressed, the blog server 1 executes, in the step S205, thecompressing process on each data on the one or the plurality ofarticles, sets and registers the tag, and deletes the original data onthe article in the steps S207, S208, and S209 like the case in FIG. 5.

After executing the above steps S205 to S209, or after determining inthe step S213 that there is no article to be compressed, the blog server1 determines, in step S214, whether or not there is an article to bedecompressed. That is, a determination is made on whether or not thereis the article that should be decompressed among the compressed articleswith reference to the determination information obtained in the stepS202. When there is no article to be decompressed, the processprogresses to step S218.

When there is one or the plurality of articles to be decompressed, theblog server 1 specifies, in step S215, the article to be decompressed,and executes, in subsequent step S216, a decompressing process on thespecified article. In this case, the decompressed article data iscombined with the blog instead of the compressed article so far.Moreover, the blog server 1 deletes, in step S217, the compressedarticle.

This causes the compressed article in the blog to be returned to thedecompressed article in accordance with the increase in accessibility.

The blog server 1 updates, in step S218, the compression anddecompression information in the managing DB 53. In this case, the flaginformation is updated so as to indicate that the compressed article inthe blog is in a compressed status. Moreover, the compressionpast-record is added. Furthermore, the flag information is updated so asto indicate that the decompressed article in the blog is in adecompressed status. Still further, the decompression past-record isadded.

When completing the compressing process and the decompressing processfor one blog through the above processes, the blog server 1 checks, instep S210, whether or not to execute the process on other blogs.

Next, when the process has been completed for all the blogs subjected tothe process at this time, the compressing and decompressing process inFIG. 14 is terminated from the step S210.

By executing the above compressing and decompressing process in FIG. 14,the actual compressing process on the article determined as compressionpermitted through the compression and decompression determining processin FIG. 13 and the actual decompressing process on the articledetermined as decompression permitted are executed. This achieves arecovery of the storage resource, and an execution of the decompressionon the article that has the increasing accessibility, thereby improvingthe performance when the access is made.

When, for example, the article itself is updated such that regarding agiven article of a blog, the describer of the blog changes the contents,or the audience posts a comment to the article, the accessibility tothis article increases. According to this embodiment, an operation ofcanceling the compression is achieved for such an article.

Accordingly, such an operation is perceived in advance, and thecompressed status is canceled in advance for the article of the blogwhich has been already compressed but which has an increasingaccessibility.

This enables a prompt distribution of the article without thedecompressing process at a time point at which an actual access is made.

8. Sixth Embodiment

According to a sixth embodiment, an example in which the blog server 1determines whether or not to decompress the already-compressed articlebased on the contents of the article will be described.

For example, regarding an article that mentions a certain theme,although such an article is not getting attention a lot at a time pointat which the article is uploaded, the possibility such that the articleis searched increases (i.e., the accessibility increases) few yearslater because any incident or event relating to the theme mentioned inthe article occurs in the world, and the linked number to the articleincreases.

Hence, such a tide is perceived in advance, and for the article whichhas been already compressed but which has the increasing accessibility,the compressed status is canceled in advance.

This enables a prompt distribution of the article without thedecompressing process at a time point at which the actual access requestis made.

FIG. 15 illustrates a decompression determining process. In addition toeach process according to the first embodiment, the blog server 1executes this decompression determining process periodically, etc., asneeded.

The blog server 1 sets, in step S601, one or a plurality of pick-outphrases. For example, current-news words are set as the pick-outphrases. Examples are words frequently appearing in newspapers and news,words often used relating to entertainment, and fad words.Alternatively, a genre or relevant words that are in the news may be setas pick-out phrases. In the case of, for example, a time period at whichthe Olympics are being held, a genre “sport”, the names of variousgames, the name of a player are set as the pick-out phrase.

The blog server 1 specifies, in step S602, one blog subjected to theprocess. Next, the blog server checks, in step S603, whether or notthere is the compressed article in the specified blog. For example, thecompression and decompression information in the managing DB 53 may bechecked.

When there is no compressed article, since the determination on thedecompression is unnecessary, the process progresses to step S607.

When the blog contains the compressed article, the blog server 1progresses the process to step S604, and obtains the information on thecompressed article tag for the blog from the managing DB 53. Thecompressed article tag contains tag information set for one or theplurality of compressed articles in a compressed status at leastpresently. That is, this is the tag information registered in the stepS208 in FIG. 6, etc.

The blog server 1 compares, in step S605, the pick-out phrase set in thestep S601 with the compression tag information obtained from themanaging DB 53, and determines the article to be decompressed.

That is, the article that has the same or similar registered compressedarticle tag to the pick-out phrase is picked out, and is determined asthe article to be decompressed.

The blog server 1 stores, in step S606, the determination information inthe managing DB 53. That is, the information on the article determinedas to be decompressed is stored.

When the decompression determining process for one blog completesthrough the above processes, the blog server 1 checks, in step S607,whether or not there is the next blog subjected to the process. Whenthere is the next blog, the process returns to step S602, the next blogto be processed is specified, and the processes subsequent to the stepS603 are executed as described above.

When the process for all the blogs subjected to the process at this timehas been completed, the decompression determining process in FIG. 15 isterminated from the step S607.

Together with this decompression determining process, the blog server 1executes the decompressing process in FIG. 16 as needed.

The blog server 1 specifies, in the step S201, the blog subjected to theprocess, and obtains, in the step S202, the determination information.

The blog server 1 refers to, in step S214A, the obtained determinationinformation, and determines whether or not there is the article thatshould be decompressed among the compressed articles. When there is noarticle that should be decompressed, the process progresses to the stepS210.

When determining that there is one or the plurality of articles thatshould be decompressed, the blog server 1 specifies, in step S215A, thearticle to be decompressed, and executes, in step S216A, thedecompressing process on the specified one or the plurality of articles.In this case, the decompressed article data is combined with the bloginstead of the compressed article so far. Moreover, the blog server 1deletes, in step S217A, the compressed article. Accordingly, thecompressed article in the blog is returned to the decompressed article.

The blog server 1 updates, in step S218A, the compression anddecompression information in the managing DB 53. In this case, the flaginformation is updated so as to indicate that the article that has beendecompressed in the blog is in a decompressed status. Moreover, thedecompression past-record record is added.

When the decompressing process for one blog completes through the aboveprocesses, the blog server 1 checks, in the step S210, whether or notthere is the next blog subjected to the process. When there is the nextblog, the process returns to the step S201, the other blog subjected tothe process is specified, and the same processes are executed.

When the process for all the blogs subjected to the process at this timehas been completed, the decompressing process in FIG. 16 from the stepS210 is terminated.

The actual decompressing process is executed on the article determinedas decompression permitted in the decompression determining process inFIG. 15 through the above processes in FIG. 16.

Hence, the article that contains current-news words, fad words, and atheme for trend, etc., are predicted such that the accessibility theretowill increase, and is decompressed. This eliminates the necessity of thedecompressing process when the number of accesses increases later.

9. Seventh Embodiment

According to a seventh embodiment, an example will be described inwhich, a change in the popularity degree index of the blog is monitored,and when an increasing tendency of the popularity degree index for agiven blog is detected, the already-compressed article contained in sucha blog is determined as the article to be decompressed. That is,regarding the blog that has an increasing popularity, the compressedarticle contained in the blog is directly set as the decompressionpermitted without an individual determination on each article.

FIG. 17 illustrates the decompression determining process in this case.

The blog server 1 specifies, in step S602, one blog subjected to theprocess. Next, the blog server refers to, in step S603, the compressionand decompression information in the managing DB 53, and checks whetheror not there is a compressed article in the specified blog.

When there is no compressed article, since the decompressiondetermination is unnecessary, the process progresses to step S607.

When there is the compressed article in the blog, the blog server 1progresses the process to step S608, and obtains the blogactual-achievement information on the blog from the managing DB 53.

The blog actual-achievement information obtained in this case isinformation that indicates the popularity degree index of the blogsubjected to the process. For example, information to be adopted as thepopularity degree index may be obtained from the pieces of informationstored as the blog actual-achievement information, or the information onthe popularity degree index calculated from the plural pieces ofinformation may be obtained. Note that in this process, instead ofobtaining the popularity degree index, the popularity degree index maybe calculated from the plural pieces of information.

It is desirable that the information that indicates the popularitydegree index obtained in the step S608 should be information which canbe referred as a value for each time period. That is, this isinformation enabling a determination on a change in popularity.

In the case of, for example, the total number of page views of the blog,the number of accessed unique users, the total linked number, and thetotal number of comments, etc., the value for each time period, such asday by day, or week by week, is suitable.

Moreover, a value that indicates the increasing tendency of the pageview for the entire blog, and a value that indicates the increasingtendency of the data amount for the entire blog may be obtained. Sincethese values directly reflect a change in popularity, those values aresuitable as the information obtained in the step S422.

The blog server 1 determines, in step S609, the popularity tendency ofthe blog from the above-described popularity degree index. For example,a “popularity increasing tendency”, “no change in popularity”,“popularity decreasing tendency”, etc., are determined. Those can bedetermined from, for example, the values for each time period, such asthe total number of page views and the number of unique users, theincreasing tendency and the decreasing tendency of page views. It isappropriate if at least a determination on whether or not the blog hasthe popularity increasing tendency presently is made.

When determining as “no change in popularity” or “popularity decreasingtendency”, the blog server 1 progresses the process to the step S607from the step S610, and when determining as “popularity increasingtendency”, the blog server progresses the process to step S611.

The blog server 1 determines, in the step S611, one or the plurality ofcompressed articles contained in the blog as all decompressionpermitted, and stores the determination information, i.e., theinformation on the article determined as to be decompressed in themanaging DB 53.

When the decompression determining process for one blog completesthrough the above processes, the blog server 1 checks, in the step S607,whether or not there is the next blog subjected to the process. Whenthere is the next blog, the process returns to the step S602, the nextblog subjected to the process is specified, and the processes subsequentto the step S603 are executed as described above.

When the process for all the blogs subjected to the process at this timehas been completed, the decompression determining process in FIG. 17 607is terminated from the step S607.

Together with this decompression determining process, the blog server 1executes the decompressing process in FIG. 16 or the compressing anddecompressing process in FIG. 14 as needed. This causes the compressedarticle in the blog that has an increasing tendency in popularity to bedecompressed.

Regarding the blog that has an increasing popularity, since all thearticles have the increasing accessibility, the compressed articles aredecompressed in advance. This eliminates the necessity of thedecompressing process at the time of viewing, and achieves animprovement in response performance and a reduction of a process load atthis time.

Note that at the time point that is the step S611 in FIG. 17, thedecompression of the compressed article contained in the blog may beexecuted.

10. Eighth Embodiment

According to an eighth embodiment, an example will be described inwhich, when the compressed article is decompressed in accordance with anaccess, the blog server 1 determines, for a predetermined time periodafter the decompression, that this article is not to be compressed. Forexample, after the decompression is executed in accordance with anaccess as described with reference to FIG. 8B or FIG. 8C, when thedecompressed article is stored, the compression determining processexecuted instead of the process in FIG. 5 is applied.

FIG. 18 illustrates the compression determining process according to theeighth embodiment. The same step number will be given to the sameprocess as that of FIG. 5, and the duplicated description will beomitted.

In the compression determining process illustrated in FIG. 18, the blogserver 1 specifies, in the step S101, the blog, and obtains, in the stepS102, the blog actual-achievement information as the popularity degreeindex. Moreover, the blog server sets, in the step S103, theto-be-compressed-blog determining threshold in accordance with thepopularity degree index, and determines, in the step S104, whether ornot the total data amount in the blog subjected to the process exceedsthe to-be-compressed-blog determining threshold. Accordingly, the serverchecks whether or not the blog is the blog to be compressed.

Subsequently, the blog server 1 selects, in the step S105, one article,and determines, in the step S106, whether or not the article has beenalready compressed. When the article has been already compressed, theprocess transitions to the process in the step S110.

When the article has not been already compressed, the blog server 1determines, in step S118, whether or not the article is the decompressedarticle. When the article is not the decompressed article, i.e., whenthe article is an article in an uncompressed status, the blog server 1executes the respective processes in steps S107 to S109 on this article.

When the article is the decompressed article, the blog server 1determines, in step S119, whether or not the predetermined time periodhas elapsed after the decompression. For example, the decompression dateand time of the article is checked, thereby checking whether or not thepredetermined time period has passed at the present time point. Thepredetermined time period is, for example, one month. The check on thedecompression date and time is executed with reference to thepast-record information in the compression and decompression informationin the managing DB 53. Note that in the case of the article havingundergone compression and decompression by multiple times, the latestdecompression date and time is checked.

Next, when the predetermined time period has elapsed from thedecompression, the blog server 1 determines that this article can becompressed again, and executes the respective processes in the stepsS107 to S109 on this article. That is, the determination on whether ornot to compress in accordance with the accessibility index is made, andthe determination information is stored.

In contrast, when the predetermined time period has not been elapsedfrom the decompression, the blog server 1 does not execute thedetermination on whether or not this article can be compressed, i.e.,the article is treated as not subjected to the compression, and theprocess progresses to the process in the step S110.

Accordingly, regarding the decompression article that is decompressedonce after compressed, the determination with respect to theaccessibility is not executed until the predetermined time period haselapsed from the decompression, and such an article is not determined ascompression permitted.

Hence, during the predetermined time period after the decompression,when there is an access request, the distribution surely without theexecution of the decompressing process is enabled.

Note that the process in the step S118 is based on the determination onwhether or not the article is the decompressed article decompressed whenthe access request is received as illustrated in FIG. 7. Regardingreception of the access request, in addition to the access requestreceived from the user terminal 5 for viewing, for example, an accessrequest by a crawler may be received. The crawler in this case means aprogram (or an information processing device that executes an operationin accordance with the program) which periodically obtains text data andimage data, etc., in various kinds of websites, and automaticallyconstructs a DB. The access request by this crawler does not contributeto a change in popularity degree or in accessibility index for viewing.

Accordingly, when the decompression is executed in accordance with theaccess request by the crawler, it is desirable to determine in the stepS118 that the article is not the decompressed article. That is, in thiscase, even immediately after the decompression, the article is subjectedto the determination on whether or not to compress.

Alternatively, when the decompression is executed in accordance with theaccess request by the crawler, the decompressed article may be notstored as illustrated in FIG. 8A.

Furthermore, when the access request from the crawler is received, ascheme of not decompressing the compressed article at all is alsoconsiderable.

Although the crawler has been described as an example, the accessesother than the access that can be regarded as the intent of the user whois a general audience may be treated like the case of the crawler asdescribed above.

11. Summary and Modified Example

According to the above-described embodiments, the following effects areaccomplished. The blog server 1 as the information processing deviceaccording to the first to eighth embodiments includes: the popularitydegree index obtaining unit 12 that obtains the popularity degree indexof the blog which contains one or the plurality of articles; thethreshold setting unit 13 that sets the threshold (theto-be-compressed-blog determining threshold) for determining whether ornot to compress each blog in accordance with the popularity degree indexfor each blog; and the determining unit 14 which determines whether ornot the blog is a blog to be compressed based on a total data amount ofthe articles contained in the blog and on the threshold, at least a partof the article contained in the blog to be compressed being to becompressed, and which determines an article to be compressed among thearticles contained in the blog to be compressed.

These functions determine whether or not to compress through theprocesses in FIG. 5, FIG. 12, FIG. 13, and FIG. 18.

When the storage resource for blogs becomes tight, a certain thresholdmay be set for each blog to compress the article. According to thisstructure, by determining the blog to be compressed in accordance with athreshold determined based on an index (the popularity degree index)that indicates the popularity of the blog, instead of setting a uniformthreshold, the appropriate blog to be compressed is selectable.

It is expected that the article belonging to a popular blog is likely tobe requested for access. That is, each article in the popular blog canbe regarded as having a higher accessibility than that of each articlein an unpopular blog. According to the process of these embodiments, thedetermination can be made with the popularity of the blog being takeninto consideration, and thus the appropriate article to be compressed isselectable.

Moreover, a compression and a decompression to the compression have ahigh process load, but according to these embodiments, the compressionand the decompressing are avoided as much as possible.

When there is an access request to the compressed article, the blogserver 1 may decompress and distribute this article, but the article tobe compressed for the storage resource is the article that belongs tothe blog which has a low accessibility. Hence, an occasion in which thedecompressing process is necessary when an access is made can be reducedas much as possible. This decreases the process load on the blog server1 to provide the blog.

Moreover, by selectively compress the article that has a lowaccessibility, the load on the compressing process can be reduced.

In view of the foregoing, according to these embodiments, thecompression of the article avoids the tight storage resource, and theappropriate article to be compressed is selectable so as to reduce theprocess occasion, such as compression or decompression, as much aspossible. Moreover, the process load on the server can be reduced, andthe performance at the time of viewing can be enhanced.

The blog server 1 according to the first to eighth embodiments includesthe compressing and decompressing unit 15 which compresses the articleto be compressed among the articles that belong to the blog to becompressed, and which decompresses the article when the access requestis made to the article that has been already compressed.

That is, the function as the compressing and decompressing unit 15compresses the article that is appropriately selected in accordance withthe determination on the determining unit 14 through the processesillustrated in FIG. 6, FIG. 11, and FIG. 14. Moreover, even if thearticle is compressed as being determined that the accessibility is low,an access request thereto may sometimes occur. In such a case, however,by executing the decompression through the process in FIG. 7, thearticle is appropriately presented to the user who has made the accessrequest.

Hence, appropriate compression and decompression can be executed foravoiding a tight storage resource, and for reducing a process load.

The determining unit 14 of the blog server 1 according to the first toeighth embodiments determines, for each article, whether or not thearticle is to be compressed in accordance with the degree of theaccessibility for each article contained in the blog to be compressed,i.e., in accordance with the accessibility index.

By compressing the article that has a low accessibility, a tight storageresource of the server is avoidable. According to such a determiningprocess, in order to compress the article with a low accessibility(e.g., an unpopular article) among the articles contained in the blog,the determination on whether or not the article has a low accessibilityis made.

By deciding the blog to be compressed using the index (the accessibilityindex) which indicates that the accessibility is low, instead ofcompressing the article based on the index (the popularity degree index)which simply indicates the popularity of the blog, the article that hastruly a low accessibility is decided as the article to be compressed. Inthe case of the article in the popular blog, even if the accessibilityis determined as low based on the actual-achievement of the articleitself, an access thereto is expected because of a relevance, etc., tothe other articles. That is to say, the unpopular article in the popularblog has a higher accessibility than that of the unpopular article inthe unpopular blog. According to the process of these embodiments, thedetermination with not only the popularity of the blog but also theaccessibility to the article being taken into consideration can be made.This enables an appropriate selection of the article to be compressed.

Moreover, although the compression and the decompression to thecompression have a high process load, according to these embodiments,the compression and the decompression are avoided as much as possible.

When there is an access request to the compressed article, the blogserver 1 may decompress and distribute the article, but since thearticle to be compressed for the storage resource is the article thathas truly a low accessibility, an occasion in which the decompressingprocess is necessary when an access is made is reduced as much aspossible. This decreases the process load on the blog server 1 toprovide the blog.

Moreover, the selective compression of the article that has truly lowaccessibility also reduces the load of the compressing process.

As described above, according to this structure, the tightness of thestorage resource is suppressed by compressing the article, and theappropriate article to be compressed within the blog is selectable so asto reduce the process opportunities of the compression and thedecompression as much as possible. Accordingly, reduction of the processload on the server and enhancement of the performance at the time ofviewing are achieved.

The determining unit 14 of the blog server 1 according to the eighthembodiment determines that, when the already-compressed article isdecompressed in accordance with the access request, the article is notto be compressed for a predetermined time period from the decompression.

According to the eighth embodiment, when the compressed article isdecompressed in accordance with an access request, this article isdetermined as not to be compressed for the predetermined time periodfrom the decompression (see FIG. 18).

When there is an access after the compression and the article isdecompressed and distributed, the article can be regarded that apossibility such that an access request would be made increases.Accordingly, the article is decompressed as it is, eliminating thenecessity of the decompressing process when the next access request isreceived.

However, the access may be sporadic, and the article may be stillunpopular. Hence, after the predetermined time period has elapsed, thecompression may be made as appropriate based on the popularity degreeindex of the blog or the accessibility index for each article. This canaddress a case in which a waste storage resource is consumed by leavingthe article as being decompressed, the necessary capacity for storage isreduced, and thus the tightness of the storage resource is avoidable.

The determining unit 14 of the blog server 1 according to the seventhembodiment determines, for the already-compressed article, whether ornot to decompress in accordance with the value that indicates theincreasing tendency of the page view to the other article in the sameblog to be compressed, and the compressing and decompressing unit 15decompresses the article in accordance with the determination on whetheror not to decompress.

According to the seventh embodiment, a change in popularity degree indexof the blog is monitored, and when the increasing tendency of thepopularity degree index is detected for a given blog, the determinationthat the already-compressed article contained in this blog is thearticle to be decompressed (see FIG. 17).

When the number of accesses to a given blog remarkably increases becauseof a certain popular article, the other articles contained in this bloghave an increasing accessibility in future although not accessed so far.Hence, all the compressed articles in the blog are determined as thearticles to be decompressed.

This eliminates the necessity of the decompressing process at a timepoint at which the actual access is made, and enables a distribution ofthe article with an excellent response performance.

Note that as a modified example of the process in FIG. 17 according tothe seventh embodiment, not all the compressed articles but somecompressed articles in the blog determined as the popularity increasingmay be determined as the articles to be decompressed. When, for example,the article that has the posted date and time within a predeterminedtime period in past from the present moment is determined as the articleto be decompressed, the large number of articles are not decompressedimmoderately, thus suitable to maintain the storage resource. Forexample, regarding the blog which has a large number of articles postedfor a long time, and which has a large number of compressed articlesthat are relatively old, it is preferable that not all the compressedarticles but some compressed articles should be determined as thearticles to be decompressed.

Alternatively, when the number of compressed articles is equal to orgreater than a predetermined number, only some (e.g., a half) articlesmay be determined as the articles to be decompressed.

Moreover, when the upper limit of the number of articles to bedecompressed is set and there are the compressed articles beyond theupper limit, the articles up to the upper limit number may be determinedas the article to be decompressed from the article that has a newerposted date and time.

The determining unit 14 of the blog server 1 according to the sixthembodiment determines whether or not to decompress thealready-compressed article based on the contents of the article.

According to the sixth embodiment, the determination on whether or notto decompress the already-compressed article is made based on thecontents of the article (see FIG. 15).

For example, as the contents of the compressed article, the article thatcontains a certain set keyword or current-news word, the article with aspecific theme, etc., are picked out, and these articles are determinedas the articles to be decompressed.

For example, regarding a blog article that mentions a certain theme,although such an article is not getting attention a lot at a time pointat which the article is uploaded, the possibility such that the articleis searched increases (i.e., the accessibility increases) few yearslater because any incident or event relating to the theme mentioned inthe article occurs in the world, and the linked number to the articleincreases.

Accordingly, such a tide is perceived in advance based on the contentsof the article, more specifically, the current-news word, the setkeyword, and the theme etc., of the article, and the article which hasbeen already compressed but which has an increasing accessibility isdecompressed from the compressed status.

This eliminates the necessity of the decompressing process at the timepoint at which the actual access is made, enabling a prompt distributionof the article.

Note that regarding the compressed article, it becomes difficult tosearch the contents. Accordingly, the managing DB 53 stores the taginformation as the compressed article tag that indicates a keyword and atheme, etc. This facilitates and enables an appropriate decompressingdetermination.

Moreover, tag setting and the tag registration in the managing DB 53 areexecuted at the time of the compression (see FIG. 6, FIG. 11, and FIG.14). This causes the execution of the processes of setting andregistering the tag to be minimum requisite. Hence, an increase inprocess load is suppressed, and the waste consumption of the storageresource in the DB immoderately is avoided.

The example processes in the above-described embodiments are merelyexamples, and other various kinds of modified examples are expectable.

When the popularity degree of the blog is classified into, for example,equal to or greater than three classifications, regarding the blog thatis determined as having the popularity in the lowest ranking, all thearticles may be determined as compression permitted. That is, this is anexample in which the determination on whether or not to compress is madefor each article based on the popularity degree index and on theaccessibility index with respect to a popularity between a first level(popularity high) and an (n−1)-th level (popularity low) with thepopularity degree being classified into n classes. For the blog in ann-th level (popularity lowest), however, all the articles are determinedas compression permitted without a determination on individual article.

In particular, as for the blog which has no access (viewing and commentwriting) of an audience, and which has no update by the describer for along time, such a blog can be regarded as substantially not utilized atall. Such a blog may be determined as the blog with the lowestpopularity as described above.

This improves the process efficiency of the blog server 1, reduces theprocess load, and ensures the storage resource.

The compressing process may be executed multiple times step by step.

For example, the determination on the accessibility is still made on thecompressed article as illustrated in FIG. 13. Next, the article whichhas been already compressed and which has no access for a predeterminedtime period may be compressed at a higher compression percentage.

For example, in the first-time compression, the compression is executedwith the compression percentage that is 20%, in the second-timecompression, the compression is executed with the compression percentagethat is 50%, and in the third-time compression, the compression isexecuted with the compression percentage that is 80%.

Moreover, there is also an example in which the first-time compressionis a lossless compression, and the second-time compression is a lossycompression.

Furthermore, the first-time compression may be a partial compression onthe article, and the second-time compression may be an entirecompression on the article.

Still further, the first-time compression may be a compression on onlythe text in the article, and the second-time compression may be acompression on the image in addition to the text.

Yet still further, the first-time compression may be a compression ononly the image in the article, and the second-time compression may be acompression on the text in addition to the image.

Some blogs may be excluded from the blog subjected to the compressiondetermining process.

For example, regarding the blog that is determined as highly popular fora long time, the article contained in this blog may be excluded from thearticle subjected to the compression determination. This reduces thenumber of blogs subjected to the processes as illustrated in FIG. 5,FIG. 12, FIG. 13, and FIG. 18, etc., making the process efficient.

Similarly, the blog determined that all the articles have been alreadycompressed, in particular, determined as quite unpopular (substantiallynot utilized at all) as described above may be excluded from the blogsubjected to the decompression determination. This reduces the number ofblogs subjected to the processes as illustrated in FIG. 13, FIG. 15, andFIG. 17, etc., and making the process efficient.

Note that in the above-described embodiments, the process which is for aso-called blog and an article contained in the blog, and whichcompresses the article has been described. Such a technology isapplicable to a folder in a file system and a file contained in thefolder.

That is, the popularity degree index for the folder is converted into avalue based on whether or not the folder is frequently utilized, and adetermination on which such a value is reflected is made on whether ornot the file is to be compressed with reference to the accessibility ofthe file.

Moreover, the blog may be a system achieved as a so-called cloudstorage.

12. Program and Storage Medium

A program according to an embodiment causes an information processingdevice (a CPU, etc.,) to execute the processes of at least thepopularity degree index obtaining unit 12, the threshold setting unit13, and the determining unit 14 of the blog server 1.

The program according to the embodiment causes an information processingdevice to execute: a popularity degree index obtaining function thatobtains a popularity degree index of a blog which contains one or aplurality of articles; a threshold setting function that sets athreshold for determining, for each blog, whether or not to compressesin accordance with the popularity degree index for each blog; and adetermining function which determines whether or not the blog is a blogto be compressed based on a total data amount of the articles containedin the blog and on the threshold, at least a part of the articlecontained in the blog to be compressed being to be compressed, and whichdetermines an article to be compressed among the articles contained inthe blog to be compressed.

That is, this program causes the information processing device toexecute the processes described with reference to FIG. 5, FIG. 12, FIG.13, and FIG. 18, etc.

Such a program enables an achievement of one or a plurality of theinformation processing devices as the above-described blog server 1.

Moreover, such a program may be stored in advance in an HDD that is astorage medium built in an apparatus like a computer apparatus, a ROM ina microcomputer that has a CPU, or the like. Alternatively, the programmay be temporarily or permanently recorded (stored) in a removablestorage medium, such as a semiconductor memory, a memory card, anoptical disk, a magneto-optical disc, or a magnetic disk. Furthermore,such a removable storage medium can be provided as a so-called packagesoftware.

Still further, such a program may be installed in a personal computer,etc., from the removable storage medium, and also downloadable via anetwork, such as a LAN or the Internet, from a download site.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST

1 Blog server, 2 Network, 5 User terminal, 11 Blog managing unit, 12Popularity degree index obtaining unit, 13 Threshold setting unit, 14Determining unit, 15 Compressing and decompressing unit, 51 Blog DB, 52Image DB, 53 Managing DB

The invention claimed is:
 1. An information processing devicecomprising: at least one memory configured to store computer programcode; at least one processor configured to access said computer programcode and operate as instructed by said computer program code, saidcomputer program code including: popularity degree index obtaining codeconfigured to cause at least one of said at least one processor toobtain a popularity degree index of a blog which contains at least onearticle; threshold setting code configured to cause at least one of saidat least one processor to set a threshold for determining whether or notto compress each blog in accordance with the popularity degree index foreach blog; and determining code configured to cause at least one of saidat least one processor to determine, whether or not the blog is a blogto be compressed based on a total data amount of the at least onearticle contained in the blog and on the threshold, at least a part ofthe article contained in the blog to be compressed being to becompressed, and to determine an article to be compressed among the atleast one article contained in the blog to be compressed.
 2. Theinformation processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:compressing and decompressing code configured to cause at least one ofsaid at least one processor to compress the article to be compressedamong the at least one article that belongs to the blog to becompressed, and to decompress the article when an access request is madeto the article that has been already compressed.
 3. The informationprocessing device according to claim 1, wherein the determining code isconfigured to cause at least one of said at least one processor todetermine, for each article, whether or not the article is to becompressed in accordance with a degree of an accessibility for eacharticle contained in the blog to be compressed.
 4. The informationprocessing device according to claim 2, wherein the determining code isconfigured to cause at least one of said at least one processor todetermine that, when the already-compressed article is decompressed inaccordance with an access request, the article is not to be compressedfor a predetermined time period from the decompression.
 5. Theinformation processing device according to claim 2, wherein: thedetermining code is configured to cause at least one of said at leastone processor to determine, for the already-compressed article, whetheror not to decompress in accordance with a value that indicates anincreasing tendency of a page view to the other article in the same blogto be compressed; and the compressing and decompressing code isconfigured to cause at least one of said at least one processor todecompress the article in accordance with the determination on whetheror not to decompress.
 6. The information processing device according toclaim 1, wherein the determining code is configured to cause at leastone of said at least one processor to determine whether or not todecompress the already-compressed article based on contents of thearticle.
 7. The information processing device according to claim 1,wherein the popularity degree index is a value obtained base on at leastone of the followings: a total number of page views for the entire blog;a number of page views for each article; a number of unique users whohave accessed the blog; a total linked number set for the blog; a totalnumber of comments posted on the blog; a number of unique users who haveposted comments on the blog; a value that indicates a page ranking ofthe blog; a length of a time period at which there is no access requestto the blog; a total number of page views for the entire blog within apredetermined time period; a value that indicates an increasing tendencyof the page views for the entire blog; a value that indicates a blogupdating frequency; a number of clicks to an advertisement provided onthe blog page; and a value that indicates an increasing tendency of thedata amount for the entire blog.
 8. An information processing methodexecuted by an information processing device, the method comprising:obtaining a popularity degree index of a blog which contains at leastone article; setting a threshold for determining whether or not tocompress each blog in accordance with the popularity degree index foreach blog; determining whether or not the blog is a blog to becompressed based on a total data amount of the at least one articlecontained in the blog and on the threshold, at least a part of thearticle contained in the blog to be compressed being to be compressed;and determining an article to be compressed among the at least onearticle contained in the blog to be compressed.
 9. A non-transitorycomputer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computerprogram configured to cause an information processing device to: obtaina popularity degree index of a blog which contains at least one article;set a threshold for determining, for each blog, whether or not tocompresses in accordance with the popularity degree index for each blog;determine, whether or not the blog is a blog to be compressed based on atotal data amount of the at least one article contained in the blog andon the threshold, at least a part of the article contained in the blogto be compressed being to be compressed; and determine an article to becompressed among the at least one article contained in the blog to becompressed.